Box of Rain

Infobox Song
Name = Box of Rain


Caption =
Type =
Artist = Grateful Dead
alt Artist =
Album = American Beauty
Published =
Released = September 1970
track_no = 1
Recorded =
Genre = Rock, folk rock, country rock, rock and roll, jam
Length =
Writer =
Composers = Phil Lesh,
Robert Hunter
Label = Warner Bros. Records
Producer = Grateful DeadSteve Barncard
Chart position =
Tracks =
next = "Friend of the Devil"
next_no = 2
Misc =

"This is about the song "Box of Rain" by the Grateful Dead. For the book by Robert Hunter, see A Box of Rain.

"Box of Rain" is a song by the Grateful Dead, from their 1970 album "American Beauty". The song was composed by bassist Phil Lesh and lyricist Robert Hunter, and sung by Lesh. In later years, the song was a favorite and the crowd would shout "Let Phil sing!" to hear the song. [Kindersley, Dorling et al "Grateful Dead, the Illustrated Trip" page 124, (2003) ISBN 0-7894-9963-0]

The song

* Key: G
* Time signature: 4/4 (with an occasional 2/4 measure)
* Chords used: A, Bm7/A, A4, D, Am, Em, C, G, Bm

"Box of Rain" is an acoustic song that is drawn from American folk and country musical roots. This is true of many Grateful Dead tunes, and most of the songs on "American Beauty" and their other 1970 release "Workingman's Dead". As the first song on American Beauty, it was also the first Grateful Dead song released on record to feature Phil Lesh as the lead vocalist.Jackson, Blair Garcia: An American Life pg. 197(1999) ISBN 0-14-029199-7] Kindersley, Dorling et al "Grateful Dead, the Illustrated Trip" page 121 (2003) ISBN 0-7894-9963-0 ]

The song also featured two musicians who are not in the band. Dave Torbert played bass, while Lesh played acoustic guitar. David Nelson plays the lead guitar with a Fender Telecaster equipped with a Parsons/White B-Bender, while Jerry Garcia plays the piano.

Lyrics

According to lyricist Hunter, Lesh "wanted a song to sing to his dying father and had composed a piece complete with every vocal nuance but the words. If ever a lyric 'wrote itself,' this did—as fast as the pen would pull."Jackson, Blair Garcia: An American Life (1999) ISBN 0-14-029199-7] Lesh practiced the song driving to the nursing home where his father lay with terminal cancer.

Many of the lyrics to this song are reminiscent of the song "Ripple", which opens the second side of the album. Images of water abound in both, as well as references to "broken" or "hand-me-down" "thoughts". The image of a "box of rain" originates, according to Hunter: "By 'box of rain,' I meant the world we live on, but 'ball' of rain didn't have the right ring to my ear, so box it became, and 'I don't know who put it there.'"Dodd, David (accessed 12 January 2008) [http://arts.ucsc.edu/Gdead/AGDL/box.html#other The Annotated Box of Rain Lyrics An Installment by David Dodd, Library, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs] ]

The line "moth before a flame" echoes several proverbs, such as "the fate of the moth in the flame"—Aeschylus, "Fragments" (Fragment #288). The line "long long time to be gone and a short time to be there" echoes the old-time classic "Little Birdie", which includes the line "I've a short while to be here, and a long time to be gone."

Performance history

"Box of Rain" debuted on September 17, 1970 at the Fillmore East in New York City during the acoustic portion of the show. That performance was (perhaps significantly given the song's emotional burden for Lesh) its sole appearance for nearly two years. The Grateful Dead reintroduced it during the Fall of 1972 and played it on and off during 1972 and 1973, then dropping it and only reviving it on March 20, 1986 at the Coliseum in Hampton, Virginia. After that, the song was frequently played in response to chants from the audience. Because of the death of Jerry Garcia, a key member of the Grateful Dead, it was unfortunately but fittingly, the last song ever performed live at a Grateful Dead concert, during the final encore at Soldier Field in Chicago on July 9, 1995.

Cover versions

Cover versions of "Box of Rain" have been done by Nicky Holland and Toni Brown.

References